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Bruins Will Play Thursday Night Football Game In Seattle On ESPN

This season's football game between UCLA and Washington in Seattle, WA will now be played on Thursday, November 18, it was announced today. The game was originally scheduled for November 13.

The request for the date change was made by ABC/ESPN and agreed to by both schools and the Pac-10 Conference athletic directors.

The game will be televised nationally by ESPN and will kick off at 5:00 pm PT. It will be UCLA's second Thursday night game of the year and third non-Saturday contest. The Bruins now have byes prior to each Thursday game.

'We are excited about the opportunity to play another nationally televised game,' said head coach Rick Neuheisel. 'The additional national exposure will benefit our program. The UCLA-Washington games are always rock'em-sock'em affairs and the Thursday night atmosphere will just add to the excitement.'

'Having two UCLA games against Washington and Oregon are significant difference makers in the quality of our 2010 Thursday Night schedule,' said Dave Brown, ESPN Vice President - Programming. 'Both games have the potential to play a major role in the race for the Pac-10 Championship and Rose Bowl this season. We greatly appreciate the assistance we received from the Pac-10 as well as Rick Neuheisel and Dan Guerrero at UCLA for their efforts in having the Bruins appear on Thursday night for the first time since the early 1990s.'

UCLA is already scheduled to play Oregon in Eugene on Thursday, October 21 on ESPN (6:00 pm) and Arizona State in Tempe on Friday, Nov. 26 on either ESPN2 or FSN.

In addition, UCLA's non-conference game versus Texas in Austin on Sept. 25 will be televised by ABC and will kick off at either 12:30 or 5:00 pm PT/2:30 or 7:00 pm CT and UCLA's home opener versus Stanford on Sept. 11 will also be televised (network TBD).

Other ABC/ESPN selections may be announced in early May and other FSN/Versus selections may be announced in early June.

Two years ago, the Bruins played two non-Saturday regular-season contests. They opened the Rick Neuheisel Era on ESPN, defeating the University of Tennessee on Labor Day night, and also played at Arizona State the night after Thanksgiving on ESPN2.

UCLA also played Thursday night games at San Diego State in 1993 and 1991 (both ESPN). In 1978, the Bruins hosted Arizona in a Friday night contest at the L.A. Coliseum. In 1977, the Bruins opened the season in a Monday night game versus Houston in the Astrodome and in 1976, the Terry Donahue Era began with a Thursday night opener at Arizona State. Dick Vermeil's final regular-season game as Bruin head coach was a Friday win over USC in 1975.